The minimal amount of starting DNA for Agilent's hybrid capture-based targeted massively parallel sequencing

Targeted capture massively parallel sequencing is increasingly being used in clinical settings, and as costs continue to decline, use of this technology may become routine in health care. However, a limited amount of tissue has often been a challenge in meeting quality requirements. To offer a practical guideline for the minimum amount of input DNA for targeted sequencing, we optimized and evaluated the performance of targeted sequencing depending on the input DNA amount. First, using various amounts of input DNA, we compared commercially available library construction kits and selected Agilent's SureSelect-XT and KAPA Biosystems' Hyper Prep kits as the kits most compatible with targeted deep sequencing using Agilent's SureSelect custom capture. Then, we optimized the adapter ligation conditions of the Hyper Prep kit to improve library construction efficiency and adapted multiplexed hybrid selection to reduce the cost of sequencing. In this study, we systematically evaluated the performance of the optimized protocol depending on the amount of input DNA, ranging from 6.25 to 200 ng, suggesting the minimal input DNA amounts based on coverage depths required for specific applications.